Last month, I highlighted some early statistics about ALA Connect, and while I would hardly call the middle of May “late,” I thought I’d post an update on those numbers. We won’t keep loading up your stream with Connect statistics, although we do hope to see usage increase leading up to, and after, ALA Annual Conference in July. Until then, here are some aggregate figures for the site’s first five weeks.

Total # of logins: 2,220 (1,950 ALA members + 270 non-members)

Total # of posts: 243

Total # of online documents: 210

Total # of calendar events: 181

Total # of polls/votes: 22

Total # of discussions (in forums): 66

Total # of images: 29

Total # of comments: 479

Total # of member-generated communities: 40

There’s also been a lively discussion about Connect on the ALA Council mailing list for the last few days. If you’re interested in reading some councilors thoughts on using (or not using) Connect, go to the May 2009 archive and start with May 8 (09/05/08 in the list).

The ItLwtLP site also has an interesting post from October 15, 2008, titled On the ALA Membership Pyramid. It has 43 comments on it, which contain some truly interesting ideas for ALA. If you’re one of the 2,000+ people who has logged in to Connect, I’m curious to know if you think it can fulfill some of the points made in the comments? It can’t solve all of them, but how can we take the advice from both ItLwtLP posts to make Connect work for those “level 1” members who aren’t part of committees and who aren’t able to/don’t want to come to conferences?

One Response to “Increasing Usage of ALA Connect”

“…Iâ€™m curious to know if you think it can fulfill some of the points made in the comments?”

Yes. I think it might have some of that utility, which is why I think it’s important to get the word out and get people mobilized to use it. To take a resource created for them and use it in a way to serve them that traditional ALA has not. But this is going to take some mass mobilization an effort on behalf of the “people” of ALA. (The ALA proletariat? That’s a nice thought. 🙂 ) But how do we mobilize people to use a resource such as ALAConnect after they have already felt disenfranchised by the parent organization that is offering the service?